The Importance of a Good Old Chat

There's something that happens in a face-to-face conversation that simply doesn't translate to a Teams call. I was reminded of this recently when I sat down with Andy Pennington, founder and creative director of Float, for what turned out to be one of those wide-ranging, genuinely enriching conversations that leaves you walking away with more than you expected.

Center Parcs by Float

Andy's journey into architectural visualisation is a fascinating one — from his early years at Graven to founding Float in 2019, and most recently expanding into Manchester. I'm not a visualisation expert, but I know what's beautiful, and Float's work is stunning. Learning the process and the stories behind each piece made it all the more so.

We covered a lot of ground. We talked about AI — why it matters to jump on that wagon now, what the dangers are of not doing so, and the opportunities it opens up. We talked about business models and what drives expansion decisions. And we discovered, with some amusement, that we both carry advice from the same two people — Ross and Janice — rattling around in our heads years later. The number of careers and businesses those two have shaped and nurtured over the years is quietly extraordinary.

Two Studios, Two Philosophies

Float's recent opening of a Manchester studio prompted an interesting conversation about expansion — one that made me reflect on my own decision-making when I opened Il Salotto a year ago.

The question I was often asked then was: will there be more Il Salottos? In London? Manchester? And my answer has always been no. Il Salotto is a love tribute to Glasgow and the Scottish architecture and design community. It's my way of giving back some of the support I've received over twelve years here, and part of a wider mission to shine a spotlight on the incredible talent and knowledge that exists within our Scottish architects and designers. Replicating it elsewhere would dilute the very thing that makes it what it is.

For Float, it's a different matter entirely. Like many of our best architectural practices, they feel the need to have boots on the ground in England — to be taken seriously by players in that market. Which is completely fair, and a smart move. Same question, different answer, both entirely right.

The Hidden ROI of Showing Up

Going to see Andy kept me away from my desk for an hour and a half. I came back with material for an article, a new Lunch & Learn session in the pipeline, and potentially a podcast interview too.

A 30-minute Teams call would have ticked the box and given me none of that.

I think about the time I travelled to Manchester to meet Caroline Baker ahead of a panel discussion I was organising. We could have sorted everything in a ten-minute call. Instead, I spent an hour in her office and left with a forty-five minute education in how Manchester has reinvented itself over the last decade — knowledge that made me meaningfully better prepared to speak about Urban Regeneration at last month's #DesignPopUp.

There's a generosity that gets unlocked when you actually show up. People share more. Conversations wander in directions that a structured call never would. You see the work on the walls, hear the stories behind it, and leave with things you didn't know you needed.

In an era when every meeting defaults to a video call, it's worth remembering what gets left on the table when we take the easier option.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is leave your desk.